Pipeline fire burns out a day after 2 die

Friday

Nov 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2007 at 12:00 PM

CLEARBROOK, Minn. (AP) -- A fire at a major pipeline from Canada that feeds oil to the United States killed two workers and sent oil prices soaring before burning out yesterday morning, officials said.

CLEARBROOK, Minn. (AP) -- A fire at a major pipeline from Canada that feeds oil to the United States killed two workers and sent oil prices soaring before burning out yesterday morning, officials said.

The two were fixing the underground pipeline when fumes apparently escaped, igniting the blaze Wednesday in Clearbrook, about 215 miles northwest of Minneapolis, said Kristine Chapin, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

Nearby residents were evacuated because of the thick black smoke in the sparsely populated area.

"It appears as though one of those fittings may have failed and caused fumes to leak, and it caught fire," Chapin said. She said there wasn't an explosion and described it as a "big fire."

The crude is used to make several kinds of fuel, such as gasoline and home heating oil. An average of 1.5 million barrels passes through the pipeline every day, said Larry Springer, a spokesman for Houston-based Enbridge. The U.S. consumes 20.58 million barrels of oil a day.

The pipeline that leaked and three others were shut down, Enbridge said. Two of the lines were re-started yesterday morning, Springer said.

Another line will be inspected to see whether it is safe to come back online, but the line with the leak will likely be out for some time, Springer said.

The fire added jitters to the markets. Light, sweet crude for January delivery jumped $3.47 to $94.09 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe. It climbed as much as $4.55 to $95.17 in the electronic session before slipping back.

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